Estimating Thermal Material Properties Using Step-Heating Thermography Methods in a Solar Loading Thermography Setup

This work investigates solar loading thermography applications using active thermography algorithms. It is shown that active thermography methods, such as step-heating thermography, present good correlation with a solar loading setup. Solar loading thermography is an approach that has recently gained scientific attention and is advantageous because it is particularly easy to set up and can measure large-scale objects, as the sun is the primary heat source. This work also introduces the concept of using a pyranometer as a reference for the evaluation algorithms by providing a direct solar irradiance measurement. Furthermore, a recently introduced method of estimating thermal effusivity is evaluated on ambient-derived thermograms

Mechanical Behaviour of a Metal-CFRP-Hybrid Structure and Its Components under Quasi-Static and Dynamic Load at Elevated Temperature

Hybrid materials containing a light metal and CFRP are capable to make a relevant contribution in lightweight design and thereby in reducing greenhouse gases causing global warming. An aluminium CFRP-hybrid specimen with a thermoplastic interlayer that is suitable for application for the A-, B-, or C-pillar in a car is investigated in this work regarding the mechanical behaviour due to temperature variation. For this purpose, quasi-static as well as dynamic tensile tests are carried out not only for those hybrid specimens but also for their respective single-material components. Those are supported by various non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques such as thermography and CT-scans of X-ray tomography. The examination of the single materials as well as the hybrid specimens gives us the possibility to understand if a change in the damage process of the hybrid is caused by one of the single materials or the interaction of them. The use of the NDT techniques in combination with the mechanical experiments allows us to obtain a deeper look at the mechanisms causing the respective damage. It stands out that temperature changes affect the damage mechanisms in the hybrid significantly without having great influence on the single materials. In quasistatic testing, the maximum displacement of the hybrid specimens rises at elevated temperature, and in dynamic testing the initial stiffness and the sustained cycles decline significantly. It therefore can be concluded that the interfaces inside the hybrids are affected by temperature changes and play a major role concerning the damage mechanisms. The pure knowledge about the temperature behaviour of single materials is not sufficient for anticipating the behaviour of hybrid specimens under these restrictions

Estimating Thermal Material Properties Using Solar Loading Lock-in Thermography

This work investigates the application of lock-in thermography approach for solar loading thermography applications. In conventional lock-in thermography, a specimen is subjected to a periodically changing heat flux. This heat flux usually enters the specimen in one of three ways: by a point source, a line source or an extended source (area source). Calculations based on area sources are particularly well suited to adapt to solar loading thermography, because most natural heat sources and heat sinks can be approximated to be homogenously extended over a certain region of interest. This is of particular interest because natural heat phenomena cover a large area, which makes this method suitable for measuring large-scale samples. This work investigates how the extended source approximation formulas for determining thermally thick and thermally thin material properties can be used in a naturally excited setup, shows possible error sources, and gives quantitative results for estimating thermal effusivity of a retaining wall structure. It shows that this method can be used on large-scale structures that are subject to natural outside heating phenomena

Target Design in SEM-Based Nano-CT and Its Influence on X-ray Imaging

Nano-computed tomography (nano-CT) based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is utilized for multimodal material characterization in one instrument. Since SEM-based CT uses geometrical magnification, X-ray targets can be adapted without any further changes to the system. This allows for designing targets with varying geometry and chemical composition to influence the X-ray focal spot, intensity and energy distribution with the aim to enhance the image quality. In this paper, three different target geometries with a varying volume are presented: bulk, foil and needle target. Based on the analyzed electron beam properties and X-ray beam path, the influence of the different target designs on X-ray imaging is investigated. With the obtained information, three targets for different applications are recommended. A platinum (Pt) bulk target tilted by 25◦ as an optimal combination of high photon flux and spatial resolution is used for fast CT scans and the investigation of high-absorbing or large sample volumes. To image low-absorbing materials, e.g., polymers or organic materials, a target material with a characteristic line energy right above the detector energy threshold is recommended. In the case of the observed system, we used a 30◦ tilted chromium (Cr) target, leading to a higher image contrast. To reach a maximum spatial resolution of about 100 nm, we recommend a tungsten (W) needle target with a tip diameter of about 100 nm

Material Extrusion of Structural Polymer–Aluminum Joints—Examining Shear Strength, Wetting, Polymer Melt Rheology and Aging

Generating polymer–metal structures by means of additive manufacturing offers huge potential for customized, sustainable and lightweight solutions. However, challenges exist, primarily with regard to reliability and reproducibility of the additively generated joints. In this study, the polymers ABS, PETG and PLA, which are common in material extrusion, were joined to grit-blasted aluminum substrates. Temperature dependence of polymer melt rheology, wetting and tensile single lap-shear strength were examined in order to obtain appropriate thermal processing conditions. Joints with high adhesive strength in the fresh state were aged for up to 100 days in two different moderate environments. For the given conditions, PETG was most suitable for generating structural joints. Contrary to PETG, ABS–aluminum joints in the fresh state as well as PLA–aluminum joints in the aged state did not meet the demands of a structural joint. For the considered polymers and processing conditions, this study implies that the suitability of a polymer and a thermal processing condition to form a polymer–aluminum joint by material extrusion can be evaluated based on the polymer’s rheological properties. Moreover, wetting experiments improved estimation of the resulting tensile single-lap-shear strength

Conception of an Eddy Current In-process Quality Control for the Production of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Components in the RTM Process Chain

The integration of quality control processes in immature production systems such as the resin transfer moulding (RTM) process in the production of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) faces numerous challenges. Requirements towards the reliability and product design as well as the consideration of economic restrictions lead to challenging requirements for measurement systems. This paper presents the development of a process integrated quality control using eddy current inspection. The concept focuses on an eddy current sensor array that is integrated in a preforming tool and thus enables a 100% quality control of CRFP parts with minor effects on the production environment

Estimation of the Adhesion Interface Performance in Aluminum-PLA Joints by Thermographic Monitoring of the Material Extrusion Process

Using additive manufacturing to generate a polymer–metal structure offers the potential to achieve a complex customized polymer structure joined to a metal base of high stiffness and strength. A tool to evaluate the generated interface during the process is of fundamental interest, as the sequential deposition of the polymer as well as temperature gradients within the substrate lead to local variations in adhesion depending on the local processing conditions. On preheated aluminum substrates, 0.3 and 0.6 mm high traces of polylactic acid (PLA) were deposited. Based on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and rheometry measurements, the substrate temperature was varied in between 150 and 200 °C to identify an optimized manufacturing process. Decreasing the layer height and increasing the substrate temperature promoted wetting and improved the adhesion interface performance as measured in a single lap shear test (up to 7 MPa). Thermographic monitoring was conducted at an angle of 25° with respect to the substrate surface and allowed a thermal evaluation of the process at any position on the substrate. Based on the thermographic information acquired during the first second after extrusion and the preset shape of the polymer trace, the resulting wetting and shear strength were estimated

Process Monitoring of a Vibration Dampening CFRP Drill Tube in BTA deep hole drilling using Fibre-Bragg-Grating Sensors

The large tool length in BTA deep hole drilling often leads to strong torsional vibrations of the tool system, leading to a reduced bore hole quality failures. When substituting steel drill tubes with tubes from composite material, the laminate structure dampens these vibrations. Secondly, the integration of sensors allow to monitor process vibrations. This contribution introduces a new sensor platform to measure process vibrations, feed force and drilling torque using Fibre-Bragg Grating Sensors. The presented experimental results focus on characteristic frequency spectra with natural torsional and compression frequencies of the CFRP drill tube, which show variations due to changed feed

SyProLei - A systematic product development process to exploit lightweight potentials while considering costs and CO2 emissions

In lightweight design, developers are used to face the conflicting objectives of functional fulfillment, economic performance, and sustainability. Against this background, however, a clearly structured approach for the satisfied use of specific lightweight engineering methods within the product development is still missing. Thus, this contribution deals with the fundamental conception and first implementation of a systematic development methodology covering the disciplines of mechanics, electrics/electronics and software just like the focus on an integrated view on product, production and material aspects. To ensure an application-specific manifestation of the product development process for three exemplary use cases from small and medium-sized enterprises but also large corporations in the area of prosthetics, bike construction and plant engineering, the individually developed methods and tools are first generalized in order to make them adaptable to a wide variety of industries. As a result, one lightweight-specific method or tool (e.g., function mass analysis, “PPM solution correlator“ or “2D layout & weight drafting”) is introduced in more detail for all stages of the technically extended RFL(T)P approach derived from model-based systems engineering (MBSE)

A FIB-SEM Based Correlative Methodology for X-Ray Nanotomography and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry: An Application Example in Lithium Batteries Research

Correlative microscopy approaches are attracting considerable interest in several research fields such as materials and battery research. Recent developments regarding X-ray computer tomography have made this technique available in a compact module for scanning electron microscopes (SEMs). Nano-computed tomography (nanoCT) allows morphological analysis of samples in a nondestructive way and to generate 2D and 3D overviews. However, morphological analysis alone is not sufficient for advanced studies, and to draw conclusions beyond morphology, chemical analysis is needed. While conventional SEM-based chemical analysis techniques such as energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) are adequate in many cases, they are not well suited for the analysis of trace elements and low-Z elements such as hydrogen or lithium. Furthermore, the large information depth in typical SEM-EDS imaging conditions limits the lateral resolution to micrometer length scales. In contrast, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) can perform elemental mapping with good surface sensitivity, nanoscale lateral resolution, and the possibility to analyze even low-Z elements and isotopes. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility and compatibility of a novel FIB-SEM-based correlative nanoCT-SIMS imaging approach to correlate morphological and chemical data of the exact same sample volume, using a cathode material of a commercial lithium battery as an example